Posted on 04/27/2002 10:41:10 PM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou
The following is posted to my fellow Texas Freepers(in the designated counties) with vehicles due for inspection in May, June, July and possibly the rest of the year.
In case you haven't heard about it, the new yearly inspection and emission test is going to be at least 2x as tough to pass as the old one and will cost you 39.50, if you can find a station with the new test equipment.
For 1996 and newer vehicles the test is part of the On Board Diagnostic Computer and can be performed by most any inspection station. The standards for Hydrocarbons(HC) and Carbon Monoxide(CO) will be cut in half, and Nitrous Oxides(NOx) must be under 1000PPM.
For 1979-1995 vehicles the standards for HC and CO will also be cut in half, NOx must be under 1000PPM, and the test will be done on a treadmill device(ASM).
Since a lot of inspection stations have opted not to get the treadmill equipment due to the expense involved. May, June, July and maybe more are going to be interesting for folks with 1979-1995 vehicles.
My inspector is still waiting for the new equipment as are the majority of them so it looks like calling around, and scheduling ahead of time are going to be neccesary.
This may be the best chance to protest all of this "OzoneMan" nonsense, that we will ever get.
For those of you in Texas that aren't under this mandate, never fear, they will get you eventually as they did in California, Nevada, and every other state that has this crapola.
As for passing, I would say it depends on how you have taken care of it. I had trouble with my Dad's 83 Ford Van he bought used 4 or 5 years ago, with only 68,000 miles on it, but have been able to have it pass the past two years. My 1980 Mustang has never had a problem passing and 90% of cars tested have passed the test which means that in order to justify the test they must now make it harder, or admit that they screwed up.
Arizona has a much more sensible system, that goes after the 10% that can't pass the test, but it doesn't enrich the makers of the test equipment or the inspection stations that do the test.
Wow! thanks for the tip! My car will be inspected before the end of April! :)
nralife
The Houston Comical ran a peice with some interesting info. It's gonna be worse than I thought.
Prevously in Harris county there were over 1100 inspection stations, currently there are about 300 that have signed up for the new test and of that only 189 of them have the ASM equipment.
The other tidbit of interest I gleened from the article was that the previous failure rate was 4% although my inspector said his was about 10%. The new failure rate is expected to triple with the new test(12%).
Get them inspected and out of the way, or face long waits and failure under the new test that starts May 1.
I would like to know if you start the process under the old test if that will carry over into May or if they will force you to do the new test upon return for a retest. If anyone knows, chime in here.
Get your car inspected now or pay the price soon
By RAD SALLEE
Copyright 2002 Houston ChronicleHarris County drivers have until May 1 to get their cars' annual inspections performed without the tougher and costlier tailpipe emissions tests required by the state's clean air plan.
May 1 is also the deadline for Harris County officials to put up 55-mph signs on the Sam Houston and Hardy tollways, unless state and federal agencies cut the county some slack. With the May 1 deadline for compliance looming, this week may see a rush of customers seeking to get under the wire and pay just $25.50, including a $12.50 safety inspection, for the simple two-speed idle emissions test now required.
Regardless of when a vehicle's current windshield sticker expires, a new sticker issued before May 1 will be good for another year, said Hazel Barbour, mobile source section manager for the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the state pollution control agency.
The current test involves placing a probe in a vehicle's tailpipe as the engine is run at two speeds, fast and idle, with the wheels stationary.
The new tests will cost $39.50 including the safety inspection and will be required for all vehicles that burn gasoline and are between two and 24 years old.
(Newer vehicles are assumed to have pollution control equipment in good working order, and older ones are exempt as antiques.)
There are two types of tests required after May 1. Vehicles from 1995 and earlier model years must have the Acceleration Simulation Mode (ASM2) test, which analyzes tailpipe gases as the engine is run and the wheels turn on a sort of treadmill called a dynamometer.
For vehicles of model years 1996 and later, a computerized on-board diagnostics (OBD) test is sufficient.
Late last week, more than 100 inspection stations in Harris County had been approved to perform the new tests, and "a lot more" facilities are expected to qualify soon, as test equipment is delivered and installed, Barbour said.
An unknown number of others are likely to offer the OBD test but not the ASM2, Barbour said.
Stations offering both tests can be identified by a big yellow check mark on the permits they display.
The state clean air plan also calls for 55-mph "environmental speed limits" to be in place by May 1 throughout the eight-county Houston metro area.
Texas Department of Transportation officials say this has been accomplished on all roads that they oversee in the area.
But Harris County officials have delayed changing signs on the toll road system, in hopes of substituting other measures that they say would be more effective in cleaning the air, and more likely to obtain public support.
On the Katy Freeway last week, midmorning traffic was rolling 70 mph and faster, despite highly visible signs and electronic message boards announcing the lowered speed limits.
One drive-time radio host advised callers to ignore the reduced limits and flood traffic courts with requests for jury trials if ticketed.
County Judge Robert Eckels said last week that county officials had been meeting with regulatory agencies in hopes of having the measure postponed until June 5, when the TNRCC meets in Austin.
The meeting agenda includes a request by Harris County to be allowed to devise other clean-air measures as substitutes for the lowered speeds.
But if nothing can be worked out, Eckels said, "We'll comply with the law.We're not going to endanger our highway funding, but we're going to continue to try to change the rule."
Just once I would like to hear a State or County elected official stand up to the Enviro-Nazis that threaten to cut off Federal funds if we don't jump thru their hoops. The response should go something like this...Fine, do it, and we will allow them to stop paying those funds in to you. Just try to come down here and collect without help or sanction from the counties or the State. If nothing else it would get it into the courts where it could fail miserably on constitutional grounds.
The John Matthews idea of overunning the courts with trial by jury has some merit, till they rule that out as an option for speeding and lack of inspection sticker tickets.
The "Hindu Times" reported on their emission check for automobiles in Chennai, India. Fanfare launched the program to create a pollution-free city, but that plan has virtually gone up in smoke. Those who set up the emission test centers with a big investment, have been left nursing the wounds of bad investments. The frequent extension of the deadline for emission certification for populist reasons, under the garb of ``public demand," has been blamed as the major cause for the indifference shown by motorists.
The Government has also been pleading inadequate staff strength to enforce the emission certification for the entire range of automobiles. Not long ago, the metropolis boasted of 132 Government authorized emission checking centers, of which 42 have closed shop. ``Poor patronage is likely to lead to the closure of 30 more units soon,'' the Tamil Nadu Vehicle Emission Checking Centres Association contends. In a three-month period ending September, 1999, only 40,000 vehicles were checked. At one center run by the Automobile Association of Southern India in the heart of the city, only two or three vehicles come in for checks each day.
Some counties in Fl went trough this bs in 80', until mid 90's, but then they gave it up (Government will lose money no matter how much they charge for inspection). I was driving 78 chevy and 79 volare at the time with about 150000 miles on each, I passed every yearly inspection by putting a gas treatment in the tank before the stupid inspection. Watch out for unscrupulous crooked mechanic shops poping-up like mushrooms in vicinity of inspection station and charging outragous amount of money for simple adjustment to pass inspection. I am suprised Texas does this nonsens, must be liberal Houston area. In Fla this "experiment" failed miserably.
With 96% of the cars passing the test, this program has failed miserably too, but instead of shucking it, the idiots are going for broke and have cut the standards in half and added a treadmill and NOx test. They wanted to adopt CA emission standards, and for that reason I think they are the same people. But Texas ain't California, at least not yet.
All this is to supossedly get rid of ozone pollution, which it won't because ozone(O3) is created not by NOx and HC, but by O2 and sunlight(ultraviolet light)or lightining which can generate large amounts of O3.
To give you an example of their absurd stupidity, my inspector had a car pass with 0 pollutants, and the TNRCC claimed it was impossible, and called it back for a retest to one of their own certified facilities, it passed with the same numbers and they wanted to go over it with a fine toothed comb. The kicker was when they found out it was a city vehicle, at that point they stopped. (This was related to me last year when my 1980 Mustang was almost too clean, and my inspector told me that they may want to call it in for a closer look, which they didn't.)
The idiots just can't believe that it isn't our cars that are doing the polluting. In the case of ozone and carbon dioxide, nature is the prime culprit.
On May 2, 2003, ASM2 and OBD II testing will be expanded to Brazoria, Ellis, Fort Bend, Galveston, Johnson, Kaufman Montgomery, Parker, and Rockwall Counties.
The equipment cost for the ASM2 test is 40K, installation is extra, and the State's incentive program didn't convince many other than chain service stations and chain stores like Firestone that can absorb the cost.
Searching around the internet here and there I have run across many inspectors that think this testing plan will meet with the same fate that the Tejas plan did.
It's also interesting that the TNRCC is changing it's name again, perhaps they already know it's going to be ugly.
I share your frustrations. In talking to people this week, they agree, are angered, but somehow figure someone will do something and make it all magically go away.
I did hear that the NOx hasn't been reduced one iota by the 55 MPH speed limit and it is facing some serious opposition in counties outside of Harris and Dallas/Tarrant.
Yeah, folks here in Denton County are voting with their feet - their right feet!
PS: For pre-OBD-II cars with fuel-injection, just ask any competent mechanic how to trick the test...
Point is if only 4% or 12% of cars are failing the test, the test is what needs to be ditched, no need to trick the needless test.
Your state and local representatives need to hear from you that you will not be returning them to their post if this nonsense continues. Anything else is NUTS!
This applies to those of you in the 15 counties that will come under this in 2003 and 2004 and the other 236 by 2007. (Yep, that's right, they have their eyes on statewide testing.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.